The snap General Election will usher in some new faces to Westminster and see some old ones leaving the corridors of power sooner than expected. Here we take a look at who’s running and who’s stepping down.

Who’s re-standing for election?

Not all MPs have declared their intention to stand in the election yet but a useful list of current declarations can be found here. The following will be of particular interest to the life sciences sector.

Name

Party

Constituency

Role

Jon Ashworth

Labour

Leicester South

Shadow Health Secretary

Nicola Blackwood

Conservative

Oxford West and Abingdon

Health Minister for life sciences innovation

Jo Churchill

Conservative

Bury St Edmunds

Vice-Chair, APPG for Life Sciences

George Freeman

Conservative

Mid Norfolk

Chair, Prime Minister’s Policy Board

John Glen

Conservative

Salisbury

Treasurer, APPG for Life Sciences

Patrick Grady

SNP

Glasgow North

Member, APPG for Life Sciences

Chris Green

Conservative

Bolton West

Secretary, APPG for Life Sciences

Norman Lamb

Lib Dem

North Norfolk

Former Health Minister

Kit Malthouse

Conservative

North West Hampshire

Chair, APPG for Life Sciences

Liz McInnes

Labour

Heywood and Middleton

Member, APPG for Life Sciences

Stephen Metcalf

Conservative

South Basildon and East Thurrock

Chair, Science and Technology Select Committee

Maggie Throup

Conservative

Erewash

Member, APPG for Life Sciences

Sarah Wollaston

Conservative

Totnes

Chair, Health Select Committee

Daniel Zeichner

Labour

Cambridge

Vice-Chair, APPG for Life Sciences

The current Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, Business Secretary, Greg Clark, and Science Minister, Jo Johnson, have not yet said they are standing but it’s probably safe to assume they are!

Who’s standing down?

Among the 25 that have so far said they are leaving Westminster are the former Labour Health Secretary Andy Burnham – who is running for Mayor of Greater Manchester – Iain Wright, Chair of the Business Select Committee, and former Chancellor George Osborne.

Familiar faces looking to return

Many of the Liberal Democrats who lost their seats in the 2015 election are looking to take advantage of this unexpected opportunity to return to Westminster on an anti-hard Brexit ticket. Among them are Julian Huppert – the former Cambridge MP and only practicing research scientist to sit on the green benches in the last Parliament – and Vince Cable, who was Business Secretary from 2010 to 2015 with a keen interest in industrial strategy. Both are running in their old constituencies that they narrowly lost in 2015 and which voted strongly to remain in the EU.

Former Conservative MP for Brentford and Isleworth Mary Macleod is also running to reclaim her seat from Labour, to whom she narrowly lost in 2015. GSK’s global HQ is in the constituency.

Could there be a reshuffle?

The polls strongly suggest that Theresa May’s Conservatives will return to power but recent history has taught us not to place too much faith in such predictions. However, there are rumours that Theresa May could take the opportunity to change some of her ministerial line-up following the election if successful.

Those named so far include Communities Secretary Sajid Javid and Justice Secretary Liz Truss. Some junior ministers may also be moved around.

The NHS is always a hot political issue and Jeremy Hunt has been subject to a lot of bad headlines recently, with The Times saying that Downing Street has been questioning his performance. There has been no suggestion so far that Greg Clark, Jo Johnson, or Nicola Blackwood will be moved. Life science ministers Lord O’Shaunessy and Lord Prior of course needn’t be worried about being re-elected on 8 June but could still be subject to a reshuffle, although there has been no suggestion that they will be.

Watch this blog for further updates. We’ll also be providing analysis of the election result and what it means for the UK life sciences sector after 8 June.

The Easter holidays came to an abrupt end with the PM’s call of a snap General Election on Tuesday morning. With 522 votes to 13, Parliament strongly voted in favour of the early election on Wednesday.

We responded to the PM’s announcement with our initial thoughts. Last Friday we posted a blog that outlines what looks set to happen to existing workstreams now the general election has been called. It’s well worth a look. This week the key thing to watch is parliamentary “wash up”- especially government legislation to enable UKRI and the medicine supply bill. Also expect to see a flurry of select committee reports published hastily. This was the first in a series of BIA blogs on the election that we’ll be publishing over the coming weeks to keep you informed. Future topics will include:

Which MPs are standing for election and who is standing down

What the parties have recently said on Life Sciences and in their 2015 manifestos. We will then follow up with an analysis of the new party manifestos

Key messages from our sector for MP candidates

The BIA has created a timeline of key dates leading up to the election and beyond. Our Parliament day on 6 July will ensure that our members are fully engaged with the new Parliament and Government less than a month of its establishment.

On behalf of the sector and our members, the BIA has responded to the Government’s Industrial Strategy Green Paper on the Wednesday before Easter. In our response, we highlighted that the UK has some of the world’s most exciting science, a supportive business environment, and strong companies led by experienced management team. The Industrial Strategy is an opportunity to build a global bioscience cluster on par with the leading clusters in Boston and the San Francisco Bay area.

While the General Election creates further political uncertainty for policy proposals like the Government’s Industrial Strategy, the BIA is ready to work with the next Government to reflect the potential and ambition of our sector. In our response to the Industrial Strategy, we outlined what the Government can do to further promote and support the life sciences including addressing the UK’s chronic shortness of scale-up capital and attracting global management talent. We will be sharing these with all the major political parties as they produce their new manifestos. Read our full response here.

On Thursday, the BIA organised one of our popular Networking Breakfasts. This time, the panel discussion focused on the Patient Capital Review and what it means for the biotech sector.

It was great to see and talk to many of our members. We heard interesting discussions from our outstanding panel with representatives from the Treasury, Wellcome Trust, the London Stock Exchange, Perella Weinberg Partners, and the Industry Advisory Panel for the Patient Capital Review. Many thanks to the panel and for Taylor Wessing for kindly hosting the event.

Today, we published the first Quarterly Update for 2017 as a part of our ongoing series of documents “Influencing and shaping our sector”. The update gives an overview of key policy developments and the BIA’s continued engagement with policymakers, regulatory authorities and wider stakeholders on behalf of the UK life sciences industry, from January to April 2017.

The BIA will continue to represent the interest of our members throughout the election process to ensure that our sector is given a prominent voice. The blogs we have planned will also provide a timely commentary on the election process and party positioning on issues important to our sector.

The call for a General Election means that Parliament will be dissolved on 3 May and the official campaign period will begin, with all major Government announcements and consultations on hold until the new administration is formed.

Below we have pulled together all the outstanding Parliamentary and Government business important to the bioscience sector and explained what will happen to it. All is subject to which party (or parties) forms the next Government.

The Life Sciences Industrial Strategy and Accelerated Access Review

The BIA has been feeding into a Life Sciences Industrial Strategy being led by Sir John Bell. Work will continue on this but it will now not be published until after the election, probably July at the earliest. Of course, this work depends on which party is in power. If it is the Conservatives – and Greg Clark remains the Business Secretary – we expect it to be business as usual. We were also expecting the Government’s response to the Accelerated Access Review to be published around the same time as the Life Sciences Industrial Strategy so this will also be delayed.

Work within Government on the wider Industrial Strategy will likely now be slowed but no announcements were expected until the autumn anyway.

Legislation

Given the now pressing need to get Bills through Parliament before it dissolves for the General Election, it looks like the Government will need to make some concessions, particularly in the House of Lords. This process of pushing Bills through at the end of a parliamentary session is referred to as wash-up.

The Government has tabled an amendment in line with Lord Warner’s amendment to the Health Service Medical Supplies (Cost) Bill. Lord Warner’s amendment requires the Government to consider the impact of cost restriction measures on the life science industry and patient access to medicines. The House of Commons rejected Lord Warner’s amendment but the Government were defeated when the Bill went back to the House of Lords on 5th April. The new Government amendment will now be debated and voted on by the House of Commons on 25th April. After this the Bill will go back to the House of Lords on 26th, when we expect it will be approved.

The Higher Education and Research Bill has just completed its passage through the House of Lords, where several non-Government amendments were inserted in to the legislation, including one to prevent international students from being included in net migration figures. It has not yet been announced when the Lord’s amendments will be debated by the House of Commons but it is expected that Theresa May will have to back-down in relation to her long-standing opposition to removing foreign students from immigration figures if she wants to ensure the Bill is approved before Parliament dissolves.

Ratification of the Unified Patent Court

The Government announced in November that the UK will proceed with ratification of the UPC Agreement to bring this pan-European patent system into force. The secondary legislation to make this happen has cleared Parliament but one piece to establish the Life Sciences Division of the Court in London has not, meaning it will now not happen until after the election.

If this can happen quickly after the election then the UPC may be able to stay on track to be operational in December. However, this timeline could easily slip. Bioscience companies should consult their legal advisers now about how the UPC could affect their IP assets.

Parliamentary inquiries

Parliamentary Committees, such as the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee, will disband when Parliament dissolves and they will need to be re-formed following the election. In the House of Commons the membership of the Committees will undoubtedly change quite considerably. The membership of each Committee will depend on how many seats each party holds in the House and who they nominate to represent them. The Chair of each Committee will need to be elected. This process can take some time.

Being a snap General Election, the Committees are not prepared for the end of the Parliamentary session. Many of them have ongoing inquiries. A summary of what will happen to those of interest to the sector is provided below. If a Committee has published their report for an inquiry, the newly formed Government will be obliged to respond. Therefore, we can expect a flurry of Committee publications before 3rd May.

Kisqali was developed by Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR) under a research collaboration with Astex announced in December 2005. Kisqali is a selective CDK inhibitor, a new class of drugs that help slow the progression of cancer by inhibiting two proteins called CDK 4 and 6 (CDK4/6). These proteins, when over-activated in a cell, can enable cancer cells to grow and divide too quickly.

Theresa May called a snap General Election from the steps of Downing Street this morning, expected to be held on Thursday 8 June, if approved as expected by parliament tomorrow.

In order for there to be an election, the Prime Minister will require two thirds of MPs to support the motion – that’s 434 MPs.

For UK life science companies the coming weeks are a period of further political uncertainty as policy proposals like the Government’s Industrial Strategy and the Life Science sector’s response to it, are formally put on hold for the period of the General Election campaign.

Similarly any further clarity or certainty on the UK’s approach to Brexit will have to await the outcome of the election – and only then become the focus of a debate with the European Union.

General Elections are also an opportunity – and the BIA will use this period to ensure that the role of, and key issues to, our sector are given a prominent voice as each of the parties prepare their manifestos. We will also provide timely commentary on the process itself, and insight into the party positioning on issues relevant to our sector through the campaign to members – starting in Newscast next week.

As with any election there are likely to be changes of personnel, new and retiring MPs, and at least some, or perhaps full scale, change in Ministerial lineup. We will use our Parliament day in July to ensure our members are comprehensively engaged with the new parliament and government within weeks of its establishment.

BIA ran its first Discovery Trip last week – with Switzerland chosen as the destination due to its importance as a base for life sciences, and its status outside of the EU. We were looking to learn and be inspired by initiatives and policies that enable the country to remain at the forefront of biotech research and at the top of the list in terms of worldwide innovation rankings. We were fortunate to work with Tekiu in terms of organisation and we attracted delegates from the Office of Life Sciences, MHRA, and a range of our member organisations.

Meeting with representatives from Zurich, Western Switzerland, Zug and Basel gave us an insight into the differences between the different regions and a view into the highly competitive canton system. Visits to the Commission for Technology and Innovation and ETH (Zurich University) provided an insight into the robust innovation support offered to entrepreneurs and scientists, and new schemes such as Baselaunch helping to get spinouts off the ground. Meeting the Swiss regulators Swissmedic enabled us to probe further into the challenges and opportunities of being a regulator working with, but outside of the EMA.

It was great to be able to hear the Neurimmune story first hand, and to visit their collaborative partners – BIA members Biogen – to learn more about their operations in Switzerland and their CHF 1 billion investment in biologics manufacturing in Solothurn, Switzerland. Great also to visit more BIA members – Shire and also Novartis, who welcomed the delegation to their fascinating campus for the afternoon on the last day. A fitting end to a thought-provoking, productive and enjoyable trip for the delegation.

Last week, the BIA also gathered with the vibrant global synthetic biology community at Imperial College for the fifth SynBioBeta London Conference. The UK’s scientific excellence and strong start-up base puts us far ahead of our European neighbours in the field. The conference included a mix of panel discussions, business presentations, and networking opportunities. As always, it is inspiring to hear about the latest innovations being developed in our exciting industry. You can read our summary of the highlights of the conference here.

This week we’ll be submitting our response to the Government’s Industrial Strategy green paper, which we have welcomed as a great opportunity for our sector to work with Government to build the third global biotech cluster. Thank you to everyone who came to our member workshops, and took part in online surveys and interviews to inform our submission. Keep a look out on our website for the final document later this week.

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a serious condition characterised by widespread inflammation in the lungs and represents a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the critical care setting. Here the Clinical Operations team at Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult and Anthony Ting, Vice President of Regenerative Medicine, Athersys inc. discuss the ongoing clinical study using Multistem to treat ARDS.

This week, the great and the good of the synthetic biology community gathered at Imperial College for the fifth SynBioBeta London, a key two-day conference on synthetic biology, its applications and challenges.

The annual conference brings together the vibrant global synthetic biology community and fosters the dialogue between entrepreneurs, business executives, tech practitioners, technology scouts, academics, and investors.

The conference opened with an overview of the sector, highlighting how strong the UK sector remains. Although the US is leading globally with over $278M already invested in 2017’s first quarter, the UK is leaps and bounds ahead of our European neighbours with our scientific excellence and strong start-up base.

Graph showing the increase in global investment into synthetic biology.

The conference included a mix of panel discussions, fire-side chats, and business presentations. It was inspiring to hear the latest innovations being developed in synthetic biology. Some of the key themes from this year’s conference included:

Engaging the public in the conversation

Keynote speaker Drew Endy, serial entrepreneur and researcher, highlighted the importance of the public’s understanding of the sector referencing the recent yes-vote in a Florida county on the use of GM mosquitoes to fight Zika. To tackle fears and preconceived ideas of the community, the pro-campaigners engaged with local communities by going door-to-door and organising town hall meetings with experts.

Endy emphasised that the sector should learn from this type of successful grassroot-engagement, reminding us that we cannot rely on technology to get our messages across but instead we need to get face-to-face with people and connect. We need to understand why people feel the way they do, to be able to build bridges between sectors and ideologies in order to overcome fears.

Think big changes; think long term

Lord Prior, Parliament Under Secretary of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), delivered a keynote speech where he talked about how we are on the verge of a fourth industrial revolution driven by scientific breakthroughs. One of the goals of the Government’s Industrial Strategy is to ensure how the UK can stay “ahead of the curve” to become the world leader of innovation.

However, with technological change comes many challenges. Lord Prior emphasised that the technology of the future needs to bridge inequality gaps between regions instead of increasing them. This relates to regional pillar of the Industrial Strategy, where the Government aims to spread growth across the country.

The success of bridging this inequality gap will partly rely on highlighting the usefulness of the technologies to the wider public. “The British are incorrigibly incrementalist, and not willing to make leaps like Google”, Lord Prior said. “We have to win the argument as to why we need these technologies for the betterment of society.”

UK’s continued access to “talent from all over the world” after Brexit will also be necessary to remain a premier science and research hub. “We also must win the global battle for talent. Britain should not be considered synonymous with a tight immigration policy,” Lord Prior commented.

Investment

Tim Fell, CEO Synthace and our Engineering Biology Advisory Committee (EBAC) Chairman, interviewed the ever-impressive entrepreneur Hermann Hauser on why he invests in synthetic biology, and what he looks for. “There is a tsunami of exciting research results coming out of labs,” Hauser commented.

Hauser stressed that above all else, he looks for passion among people in a company. Following on, he considers:

Size and growth rate of market;

Quality of the skills of the team (there needs to be 1-2 key management figures);

The technology they are developing.

Funding announcement

Data Collective (DCVC), a venture capital fund investing in entrepreneurs applying deep tech to transform giant industries, announced at the conference its partnering with Dr. John Cumbers to launch a pre-seed and seed venture capital fund, the DCVC SynBioBeta Fund, to invest in synthetic biology start-ups. Read more here.

Next conference

The next SynBioBeta conference is in San Francisco October 3, 2017 – October 5, 2017. Mark your calendars now, and read more here.

The new UCL Future Targeted Healthcare Manufacturing Hub has been established to address manufacturing, business and regulatory challenges to ensure that new targeted biological medicines can be developed quickly and manufactured at a cost affordable to society. This national asset is valued in excess of £20M over 7 years (2017–2024).

The Hub engages leading academics across the UK as Spokes and the research will span stratified protein medicines targeted to particular patient groups through to truly personalised cell-based medicines. The Hub is unique in the biomanufacturing space, and is being supported by a large number of the leading manufacturers and suppliers in the biotherapeutics industry and non-governmental associations, including the BIA. BIA members can also engage with the hub by becoming members of the Industrial User Group.

UCL Hub Vision

By 2025 targeted biological medicines will transform the precision of healthcare prescription, improve patient care and quality of life.

The current “one-size-fits-all” approach to drug development is being challenged by the growing ability to create stratified and personalised medicines targeted to specific sub-populations and even individuals.

Without significant manufacturing and supply innovations, the promise of targeted healthcare will remain inaccessible for many. The impact on health and well-being is profound.

The Hub will be the first globally recognised consortium for the creation, delivery and dissemination of innovative manufacturing research, underpinning cost-effective, robust manufacture, supply and delivery of targeted biotherapeutics.

UCL Hub Collaboration and Deliverables

The Hub will work with its network of users and academics to deliver the vision, with the core research focusing on:

This paradigm shift in manufacturing practice will provide the manufacturing infrastructure needed for sustainable healthcare.

UCL Hub Impact

The benefits of the Hub extend beyond the users who have co-developed the proposal. Our innovations will move the reality of targeted healthcare forward significantly by identifying the necessary technological and logistical solutions. Targeted interventions will provide a step change for many patients in terms of widened access to new treatments. The range of targets is huge and includes treatments for cancers and the re-programming of degenerative disorders such as dementia. This is a radical new opportunity for the industry. The Hub will undertake rapid and effective development of new clinical medicines and promises a new horizon for the sector.

For more information on the Hub, collaboration and how to join the industrial User Group please contact: Dr. Naveraj Gill, Strategic Alliance Director, Deputy Head of Department (Enterprise)